Australia announces changes to the subgroup 500 visa for students

Overseas students who wish to immigrate to Australia for their studies must now apply through the subgroup 500 Single student’s visa irrespective of the stream of study.

The introduction of genuine provisional entry requirement makes it important that one seeks legal opinion before applying for the student visa in the subgroup 500. From now on authenticity that was an important reason for processing the student visa application will now become a fundamental criterion for the reliability of the application.

The implication of this change is that the student applicant will now have to persuade the Case officer that the intention for applying through the visa is for studies in Australia and it will not be used as a backdoor entry to arrive in the nation.

To convince the case officer to be satisfied with the applications reliability abundant supporting documents will have to be given. It should be clear that the purpose of migrating to Australia is only for a provisional period of pursuing studies only.

It was quoted by Lexology that there were two criterions for assessing the application. First is that the student must be enrolled in a registered course of the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students. Overseas students must include a confirmation of enrolment (CoE) for every course they wish to apply. Mere a letter from the education provider will not be enough.

The second condition is the fees for application. The sum of the application fees is dependent on the residence of the student. It is variable for students already in the country and overseas immigrating students. The normal application fee for the student visa is $550.

The students who are in Australia at the time of application for the visa will have to pay extra consequent provisional application fee of $700. This is in addition to the visa application fee.

These changes are however not effective from the past date. This means that students who have already applied for the student visa under sub-groups 570 or 576 the new eligibility conditions will not be applicable and the visa remains valid.

It can be very testing at times to apply and get processed the overseas student visa overseas. This can be frustrating and delayed. So if you want to migrate to Australia, approach Y-Axis to get professional advice and assistance to file for a visa from one of its 19 office located in India’s eight largest cities.